Apparatus for forming blocks of natural cheese from cheese curd

ABSTRACT

Crumbled cheese curd is fed into the top of a hollow column in a chamber maintained at a sub-atmospheric pressure so as to form in the column a pillar of curd devoid of air pockets, the curd in the lower portion of the pillar being compressed by the weight of superimposed curd to press out whey therefrom and consolidate the curd, the whey passing through perforations in the wall of the column, and the pillar of curd is repeatedly lowered, the bottom end of the pillar severed to form a block of cheese, and fresh curd added to the top of the pillar. The curd is fed into the chamber through a feedpipe connected between the top of the chamber and the outlet of a hopper containing curd under atmospheric pressure, the differential pressure between the hopper and the chamber causing curd to flow along the feedpipe. The feedpipe discharges into a cyclone separator in the top of the chamber for separating air from the curd. During the lowering of the pillar of curd, the top of the pillar is subjected to a higher pressure than that acting on the bottom of the pillar so that the differential pressure exerts a force on the top of the pillar urging the pillar downwards and prevents fracture of the pillar due to frictional resistance with the walls of the column.

This application is a divisional of my co-pending application Ser. No.672,953 filed Apr. 2, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,794.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to cheese-making, and is concerned moreparticularly with the formation of blocks of compressed natural cheesefrom cheese curd.

An increasing volume of cheese is being manufactured commercially bycrumbling cheese curd in a mill, mixing the curd with salt, compressingthe prepared curd to expel whey and air and cause the particles of curdto fuse together and form a block of natural cheese, wrapping the blockin impervious sheet material, and then maturing the cheese underpressure. Previously the conventional method of forming the preparedcheese curd into blocks of natural cheese was by compressing the curd inindividual moulds, but the filling, weighing, compressing and emptyingof each mould is a time-consuming operation, and a large number ofmoulds and presses are required for large scale production.

In U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,026 there is described and claimed a method ofcompressing crumbled cheese curd to consolidate the curd into cheeseblocks, comprising forming the crumbled curd into a pillar in a chambermaintained at a sub-atmospheric pressure whereby air introduced with thecurd is "flashed-off" and the curd in the pillar is free of air pockets,the curd in the lower portion of the pillar being compressed by theweight of superimposed curd to press out whey therefrom and consolidatethe curd, removing the whey from the chamber, feeding crumbled curd intothe chamber and onto the top of the pillar, lowering the pillar in thechamber and severing the lower end of the pillar to form a block ofcheese, and removing the block of cheese from the chamber. The apparatusdescribed in the above mentioned specification for carrying out thismethod comprises a hollow column mounted in the chamber, the pillar ofcurd being formed by filling the inside of the column with crumbled curdand the pillar being lowered by first supporting the pillar on aplatform and then lowering the platform to slide the lower end of thepillar out of the column. The top of the chamber is fitted with anairlock for feeding the crumbled curd into the chamber when the chamberis at a sub-atmospheric pressure. In the operation of this apparatus itwas found that the frictional resistance between the pillar of curd andthe walls of the column was sometimes high enough to cause fractures inthe pillar when it was lowered in the column.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the invention is to provide improved mechanism for feedingcrumbled curd into the top of the column in cheese making apparatus ofthe kind described in the above mentioned Patent Specification.

In accordance with the present invention, the curd feeding means forfeeding curd into the top of the column comprises a hopper for storageof the crumbled curd, the hopper having an outlet at the lower endthereof, a feed pipe extending from said outlet to the top of thecolumn, and valve means controlling flow of curd along the feed pipewhen the gaseous pressure in the column is substantially lower than thegaseous pressure acting on the curd in the hopper.

A cyclone separator for separating curd from air therein is preferablyprovided between the feed pipe and the column, the cyclone separatorcomprising an upright cylindrical chamber positioned above the columnwith the lower end of the chamber opening into the interior of thecolumn, a curd inlet pipe opening into the chamber tangentially throughthe wall thereof, the curd inlet pipe being connected to the feed pipefor receiving curd therefrom, and an air outlet connected to vacuummeans, whereby curd drawn into the separator through the curd inlet pipeflows around the cylindrical chamber in a curved path, and airintroduced into the chamber with the curd is removed through the airoutlet by the vacuum means.

In order to avoid the risk of fractures in the pillar of curd when it isbeing lowered in the column due to frictional resistance between thepillar of curd and the walls of the column, the top of the pillar ofcurd is subjected to a higher pressure than that acting on the bottom ofthe pillar so that the differential pressure exerts a force on the topof the pillar urging the pillar downwards.

One object of the present invention is to provide an improved cheesemaking apparatus of the kind described in the above-mentioned patentspecification wherein means are provided for subjecting the top of thepillar of curd to a higher pressure than that acting on the bottom ofthe pillar during the lowering thereof whereby the differential pressureexerts a force on the top of the pillar urging the pillar downwards andthereby reducing the risk of fracture of the pillar due to frictionalresistance with the walls of the column.

The blocks of cheese manufactured by the apparatus of the invention arein a condition suitable to be wrapped in impervious sheet material andmatured under pressure. It is, of course, to be understood that thecrumbled curd has previously been mixed with salt and any other desiredadditive and the term curd is used herein to denote the mixture used formaking cheese.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

One construction of apparatus suitable for carrying out the method ofthe invention will now be described, by way of example, with referenceto the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the apparatus, and

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a vacuum control valve of the apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus comprises a hollow casing 10 ofrectangular section mounted vertically on a hollow casing 11, the lowerend of the casing 10 opening into the interior of the casing 11. Theinterior of the casing 10 forms an upper vacuum chamber 12 and theinterior of the casing 11 forms a lower vacuum chamber 13. A guillotineblade 15 is mounted in guides (not shown) on the lower end of the casing10, within the chamber 13, the blade being movable by a piston andcylinder motor 17 between a closed position in which it seals off theupper chamber 12 from the lower chamber 13, and an open position inwhich it is withdrawn wholly clear of the lower end of the upperchamber.

A thin-walled tubular column 20 of rectangular section is mounted in theupper chamber 12 with its lower end spaced close to the guillotine blade15, when in the closed position, and a cyclone separator 21 is mountedon the upper end of the column and projects upwards through an openingin the top of the casing 10, the cyclone separator being a fluid tightfit in the opening in the casing. The walls of the column 20 areperforated and co-operate with the casing 10 to form therebetween aspace for drainage of liquid. The walls of the column can convenientlybe formed by perforated liners on the inside wall of the casing 10. Theliners may consist of thin stainless steel sheets, each sheet havingsmall elongated strips punched out of the plane of the sheet to form twonarrow slots on each side of each strip with the ends of the stripsmerging smoothly into the body of the sheet, as described in my U.S.patent application Ser. No. 672,954 filed Apr. 2, 1976. Such strips maybe approximately 3/8 of an inch long and 1/16 of an inch wide with thestrips spaced one inch apart in rows, the strips in each row beingstaggered relative to the strips in the adjacent row. The sheets arearranged so that the strips are vertical and project from the outsidesurfaces of the sheets. The inside surfaces of the walls of the column20 are thus smooth and unobstructed by any inwardly extendingprojections, and the strips space the body of the sheet from the casing10 to provide the drainage space.

The cyclone separator is for use in feeding curd into the column 20 andcomprises an upright cylindrical chamber 22 and a curd inlet pipe 23which opens into the chamber 22 tangentially through the wall thereof.The bottom of the chamber 22, which opens into the interior of thecolumn 20, is fitted to a rectangular section adapted to fit on atapered mouth on the top of the column. The top of the chamber 22 has anoutlet 24 through which air can be evacuated from the separator and thecolumn.

The curd inlet pipe 23 is connected by a flexible pipe 25 to the outletof a hopper 26 for storing curd to be fed to the column, the pipe 25containing a valve 27 for controlling feed of the curd. The hopper isfitted at the lower end thereof with a sensing probe 29 adapted toprovide a signal when curd in the hopper drops below a predeterminedlevel. The valve 27, which is of known construction, comprises acylindrical casing fitted internally with a rubber tube which forms thethrough passage for the valve, the rubber tube being collapsible tocontrol flow of material through the valve upon supply of air underpressure to the chamber formed between the outer casing and the rubbertube. Control mechanism supplies compressed air to the valve to closethe same in response to the signal issued by the probe when the curd isbelow the predetermined level in the hopper.

A large vacuum reservoir 35 is connected directly by a pipe 36 to apower driven exhauster 37 operable to maintain the reservoir at a highvacuum, and the reservoir is also connected through a control valve 38and a pipe 39 to the air outlet 24 of the cyclone separator 21 andthrough a control valve 40 and a pipe 41 to an air outlet 42 for thelower chamber 13. The two control valves 38, 40 are of identicalconstruction and as shown in FIG. 2 each comprises a cylinder 51 and avalve piston 52 adapted to make sealing engagement selectively withvalve seats 53, 54 at the lower and upper ends respectively of thecylinder, the center portion of the cylinder having a port 55 connectedto the pipe 39 or 41, the lower end of the cylinder being connected tothe vacuum reservoir through the valve seat 53, and the upper end of thecylinder being connected to atmosphere through the valve seat 54. Theupper end of the cylinder 51 is fitted with a cap 56 having a pluralityof ports 57 adapted to be aligned with ports 58 in the cylinder wall,the ports 57 being graduated in size so that the rate of flow of airthrough the valve seat 54 can be regulated by angular adjustment of thecap. The valve piston 52 is secured to a piston rod 60 which extendsthrough the valve seat 54 and through an aperture in the cap 56 and isconnected to an air motor operable to move the piston 52 alternatelyagainst the valve seats 53, 54 so that the port 55 is connected to thevacuum reservoir when the piston is engaged against the valve seat 54and the port 55 is connected to atmosphere through ports 57, 58 when thepiston is engaged against the valve seat 53. As shown in FIG. 1, the airmotor for operating control valve 38 is designated 61 and the air motorfor operating control valve 40 is designated 62.

The lower end of the casing 10 has a drainage manifold 65 whichcommunicates with the space between the column 20 and the casing 10, anda drain passage 66 from the manifold opens into the chamber 13 through aflap valve 67 designed to prevent flow of fluid from the lower chamberinto the upper chamber when the pressure in the lower chamber is greaterthan that in the upper chamber. The bottom wall of the casing 11 isfitted with a drain passage 68 controlled by a valve 69 actuated by apiston and cylinder motor 70.

The lower chamber 13 is provided with a platform 75 positioned directlybelow the column 20. The platform is mounted on the piston rod 76 of avertical piston and cylinder motor 77 operable to raise and lower theplatform. The lower chamber is also provided with an ejector 78consisting of a flat plate 79 mounted on the end of a piston rod 80 of ahorizontal piston and cylinder motor 81 operable to move the disc acrossthe platform so as to eject a block of cheese thereon through a door 82in the end wall of the lower casing 11.

At the start of an operational cycle of the apparatus, the curd feedpipe 25 is closed by valve 27, the upper chamber 12 is sealed from thelower chamber 13 by the guillotine blade 15 which is in the closedposition shown in FIG. 1, the door 82 in the casing 11 is closed, thedrain passage 68 in the lower casing 11 is closed by valve 69, thecontrol valves 38, 40 are each set so that their valve pistons 52 areengaged against the upper valve seats 54 so that both the chambers 12,13 are connected to the vacuum reserovir 35, and the exhauster 37 isdriven to evacuate air from the reservoir and the two chambers 12, 13.The hopper is filled with a mixture of crumbled cheese curd and salt.

When a high vacuum is obtained in the two chambers 12, 13, the valve 27is opened so that the difference between the low pressure in the chamber12 and the comparatively high atmospheric pressure acting on the curd inthe hopper causes the curd to flow up the pipe 25 and into the cycloneseparator 21. The mass of curd in the hopper and pipe providessufficient restriction to entry of air through the pipe into the chamber12 to enable the vacuum to be maintained therein. In the event of thelevel of curd in the hopper falling below a predetermined level, theprobe 29 actuates the valve 27 to close the curd feed pipe as explainedabove.

The curd entering the cyclone separator is of course immediatelysubjected to the low pressure therein and some of the moisture in thecurd is "flashed off" into vapour and withdrawn from the separator,together with air entering with the curd, through the pipe 39. Since theinlet pipe 23 opens tangentially into the cylindrical chamber 22 of theseparator, the curd tends to travel around the wall of the chamber 22before it falls into the chamber 12, and the air and moisture vapourtend to flow into the center of the chamber 22 where it is subjected tothe updraught caused by evacuation of air through the pipe 39. There isthus little risk of any of the curd being drawn upwards into the pipe 39by the current of air through the separator.

The crumbled curd falls from the separator into the column 20 and buildsup into a pillar of curd supported on the guillotine blade 15. Theweight of curd in the column compresses the curd at the lower end andforces whey out of the curd, the whey passing through the slots in thewalls of the column into the space between the column and the casing 10and the whey then draining into the manifold 65. The column is providedwith control mechanism operable to close the valve 27 to cut off thesupply of curd whenever the pillar of curd reaches a predeterminedheight.

When the pillar of curd has reached the predetermined height, theplatform 75 in the lower chamber 13 is raised to a position in which itis immediately below the guillotine blade 15 and the motor 61 of controlvalve 38 is operated to move the valve piston from the upper seat 54into engagement with the lower seat 53 and thereby permit air to flowthrough the pipe 39 into the chamber 12. The resulting increase inpressure in the chamber 12 compresses and consolidates the curd in thepillar. Since the build-up of the pillar took place at low pressure,there is little or no air inside the pillar and the curd has a compactstructure without cavities. The rise in pressure in the chamber 12 alsoforces the whey in the manifold 65 out of the drain passage 66 and flapvalve 67 into the chamber 13 which is still maintained at the lowpressure existing in the vacuum reservoir 35. When the whey in themanifold 65 has been expelled into the chamber 13, air in the upperchamber 12 flows continuously down between the walls of the column 20and the casing 10, through the flap valve 67 into the chamber 13, and isthen evacuated from chamber 13 through the pipe 41 and vacuum reservoir35. This flow of air sweeps moisture from the slots in the walls of thecolumn 20 and has a drying effect on the curd in the column.

The blade is then withdrawn so that the pillar of curd within the columnslides down on to the platform. The platform, together with the pillarof curd, is then lowered slowly by the motor 77 to the position shown inFIG. 1. During the downward movement of the platform the pillar of curdis forced downwards against the platform by the air pressure in chamber12 which is considerably higher than the air pressure in chamber 13.This downward pressure on the pillar of curd ensures that there is norisk of the pillar of curd fracturing due to the frictional resistancebetween the curd and the walls of the column. When the platform is inits lowered position the guillotine blade is driven into its closedposition as shown in FIG. 1, thereby severing a block of curd from thelower end of the pillar of curd. Although the curd in the block has beencompressed by the weight of the superimposed curd in the column and bythe increased pressure of air in the column when connected toatmosphere, the block of curd is compressed further by forcing theplatform upwards and compressing the block against the underside of theblade 15. The curd can thus be compressed to any desired degree by useof a suitable size of motor 77.

After compressing the block of curd for a predetermined time (forexample 30-60 seconds), the platform is lowered to space the block fromthe blade 15, the control valve 40 is operated by the motor 62 todisconnect the pipe 41 from the vacuum reservoir and connect it insteadto atmosphere. Also, the valve 69 is opened to increase the rate ofsupply of air to chamber 13. When the pressure in the chamber 13 hasrisen to atmospheric pressure, the block of curd is removed through thedoor 82 by the ejector 78. At this stage, whey which has entered thelower chamber 13 through the flap valve 67 drains away through the drainpassage 68. The ejector is then retracted, the door 82 and the valve 69are closed, the two control valves 38, 40 operated to connect the twochambers 12, 13 to the vacuum reservoir, and the cycle repeated.

It will of course be appreciated that the control valves and motors canbe operated automatically in sequence by suitable control mechanism ineach operational cycle of the apparatus.

After an extended period of operation, the whole interior of chambers12, 13 and particularly the whey drainage area between the column 20 andthe casing 10 becomes coated with fatty deposits and small particles ofcheese curd which must be thoroughly removed.

Superficial removal of loose debris is achieved by feeding clean waterinto the hopper 26 while maintaining a vacuum in chambers 12 and 13 sothat the water is drawn up through the pipes 25 into the separator anddrains down the column.

A more thorough cleaning is obtained by pumping water to a connection 90provided at the top of casing 10, the water descending between thecolumn 20 and the casing 10, flowing past the open guillotine blade, andthen collecting in the bottom of the chamber 13 from which it drainsthrough the open valve 69 and drain passage 68 to waste. After all theloose debris has been flushed out, hot water containing a suitabledetergent is pumped to the connection 90 as long as is necessary tothoroughly degrease the surfaces. Although the main flow of liquid takesplace between the walls of the column 20 and the casing 10, aconsiderable amount is forced into the interior of the column throughthe drainage slots in the walls thereof, in addition to that whichspills over the top of the walls of the column and in practice thisresults in effective cleansing of all surfaces. The cleaning operationis completed by pumping cold clear water to the connection 90 to removeall detergent.

I claim:
 1. An apparatus for forming blocks of cheese from crumbledcheese curd, the apparatus comprising a first chamber having an upperend and a lower end; a second chamber having an interior, said firstchamber being superimposed on said second chamber with said lower end ofsaid first chamber opening into said interior of said second chamber; aguillotine blade extending across and closing said lower end of saidfirst chamber; curd feeding means for introducing crumbled cheese curdinto said upper end of said first chamber to form a pillar of curd onsaid blade whereby the curd in a lower portion of the pillar iscompressed by the weight of superimposed curd to press out wheytherefrom and consolidate the curd; vacuum means for extracting air andwhey from said first chamber so as to maintain a sub-atmosphericpressure therein during feeding of the curd into said first chamberwhereby air introduced into said first chamber with the curd is flashedoff before the curd is deposited on the top of the pillar, said vacuummeans including a vacuum reservoir; a slide valve; means operable tomove said slide valve into an open position to permit the pillar of curdto slide down said first chamber and then return said slide valve into aclosed position to sever a block of curd from the lower end of thepillar extending into said second chamber, said second chamber beingprovided with an outlet for removal therefrom of a block of cheesesevered by said guillotine blade from the pillar of curd; closure meansfor closing said outlet; conduit means connecting said vacuum reservoirto said first and second chambers; valve means in said conduit meansadjustable to connect said vacuum reservoir selectively andalternatively to said first and second chambers; bleed means foradmitting a restricted flow of air into said first chamber while saidvacuum means are operable to extract whey and air from said secondchamber so as to maintain a higher pressure in said first chamber thanin said second chamber during the lowering of the pillar of curd wherebydifferential pressure exerts a force on the top of the pillar urging thepillar downwards.
 2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including ahollow column in said first chamber, said hollow column having a top anda lower end and being spaced with small clearance from side walls ofsaid first chamber, said guillotine blade closing said lower end of saidcolumn when said blade is in the closed position, said curd feedingmeans being arranged to feed curd into said top of said column to form apillar of curd supported on said blade, at least a lower portion of saidcolumn having apertures for passage of whey expressed from the pillar ofcurd; additional conduit means for connecting said second chamber toclearance space between said column and side walls of said firstchamber; a one-way valve in said additional conduit means to permit flowof fluid from said first chamber into said second chamber when pressurein said first chamber is higher than pressure in said second chamber;whereby when the vacuum means are operable to extract air from thesecond chamber, air introduced into the first chamber through the bleedmeans discharges through the additional conduit means to the secondchamber and entrains whey expressed from the pillar of the curd into theclearance space.